The Merrick Family has grown: Recap in pictures

Picture overload...rightfully so when I have two adorable little boys that keep us laughing and loving everyday! A lot of these pictures are taken from my phone because it's just easy to snap pictures throughout the day! We spent this past weekend at my parents, Ben's first trip to the farm, Sean checked out all of his hunting stands, we took family pictures, and Luke got a big surprise! We have been enjoying the weather this weekend, playing outside lots! Ben is really enjoying time in the Baby Bjorn for a couple of reasons but mostly because he just started the phase of wanting to be held non stop. The little guy will almost be asleep and the minute I set him down he wakes, only to fall right back asleep when I pick him up. So he has been spending sometime in the bjorn and it is a win-win for us all. He sleeps, I have my hands free to run around with Luke outside, and we are all happy! Speaking of happy, I have to share that Luke has just been talking up a storm lately. The other day, Ben was crying and I told Luke, "Ben is not happy." So last night Sean was gone and I was trying to get both boys down to bed and Ben was crying and Luke walks over to him and says, "Ben, be happy!" I about died, it was precious. We are working on going to the potty and poopy on the big boy potty. We are no where close to potty training, but we are asking a lot and spending sometime in the bathroom reading books. I took Luke to Target Monday after school and we picked out a few little toys and some treats. I put them in basket and told him he gets the toys if he goes poop and treats if he goes potty. I have handed out two toys and four treats in the past two days! We are making progress, but have a long way to go. We will be as patient as we need to be, but are sure to celebrate each occurrence on the "big boy potty"! Below are lots of pictures of the boys these past couple of weeks...Enjoy!

"the shirt says it all"

Luke loves to help in the kitchen, especially when we make sweet treats!

This is Luke on the plane ride back from Seattle in July. Several months behind but I just saw it on my phone and wanted to make sure to document Luke's 1st trip via plane. He did such a great job!

Luke likes to put on my sunglasses and say "cool dude"

Ben wasn't so into the Iowa vs Pitt game two weeks ago! He napped through the brutal first three quarters and woke for the exciting 4th quarter to see the Hawks pull out a win!

Ben is a very alert little boy

Doing a little art project! We are working on our colors and Luke is doing a great job so far with yellow, blue, green, black, and pink.

As I mentioned we are working on potty training...this is what really pushed us. Luke will run to different hiding spots throughout the house to go poop. He has several in the kitchen and living room so we decided it was time to start getting him to run to the bathroom rather than hiding under the kitchen table!

With my two boys a couple of weeks ago before our first outing to the mall

Ben's 1st full bath
Ben's cord fell off on his two week birthday, September 17th so we gave him is first full bath on September 19th

Luke was such a great helper giving Ben is bath. Ben didn't care too much at first but then he began sucking on his hands and was very content. He now loves his bath time which is a great way for us to wind down the night and get him thinking about bedtime.

I love this picture of my dad, Sean, and Luke having a little pow-wow

Luke's surprise...my parents bought a gator to keep at the farm! When we had to leave on Sunday night Luke pretty much cried the whole way home. He loves his Bop and Nannie so much, playing on the farm, and now you add this to the mix...we will never get him to come home with us! It was kind of cute, although it breaks my heart how sad he gets. He was watching Cars on the iPad and out of the blue he would start crying and say "Bop, Nannie, back" (he wanted to go back) then he would be fine, a few minutes later he would start crying again, "Bop, Nannie, back". This literally went on the entire drive back to Coralville.